Cargo ship leaves space station, heads to Earth

The cargo ship known as the Dragon has now left the International Space Station and is headed home.

The unmanned cargo ship, operated by space innovators Space X, was released from the space station's robot arm this morning.

The ship is privately owned and should splash down in the Pacific ocean this afternoon.

The spacecraft will bring back space samples and old equipment removed from the space station.

SpaceX launched the Dragon just a few weeks ago on March 1.

SpaceX is being paid by NASA to take supplies to the space station periodically.

Less than 10 minutes after launch, there was a small issue when the cargo ship separated from the Falcon 9 rocket.

Problems with the oxidizer tanks arose, but engineers on the ground quickly had the issue under control.

The minor malfunction delayed the cargo ship's arrival by a short time.